New massive rejection of the blockade against Cuba at the UN

The resolution that demands the end of the embargo imposed in 1962 on Cuba It was supported by 189 countries and rejected only by the United States and Israel, the same as last year. There were no abstentions and Ukraine and Moldova did not vote.

The eight amendments presented by the United States with a call to Cuba to end the restrictions on freedom of expression and assembly, the persecution of dissidents and the release of political prisoners did not gather the required support.

They were only supported by the United States, Israel and Ukraine, and one by the Marshall Islands. More than 65 countries, including those of the European Union, abstained and more than 110 rejected them.

The Cuban chancellor, Bruno Rodríguez, described them as "a dishonest trick" to "create confusion, abuse time and produce fatigue" in a long speech before the Assembly. As a result of the amendments, the vote had to be postponed from Wednesday to Thursday.

"The US government has no authority to criticize Cuba or anyone else on human rights issues," said the foreign minister, who said the blockade causes Cuba "untold human damage" and represents "genocide."

Rodriguez said that since President John F. Kennedy imposed the embargo in February 1962, less than a year after Fidel Castro declared the socialist character of the Cuban revolution, it has caused damage to the island by more than 134,499 million. of dollars at the current exchange rate.

USA: "There are only losers"

A loud applause shook the immense circular hall of the assembly after the vote of condemnation of the embargo. "I am always puzzled when I hear applause in this room at times like this. Because there are no winners today. There are only losers. The UN lost. He has rejected the opportunity to speak in the name of human rights, "lamented the US ambassador to the UN, Nikki Haley, after the massive rejection of her amendments.

"The majority of Cubans have lost. They have been abandoned once again to the brutal whims of the Castro dictatorship. They have been abandoned by the UN, "Haley said.

The Donald Trump government counterattacked on Thursday from the Freedom Tower in Miami, a building where Cuban refugees were greeted in the 1960s after fleeing the island. There, John Bolton, adviser to the White House for National Security, assured that Cuba integrates together with Venezuela and Nicaragua a "troika of tyranny".

And he announced that the US State Department added two dozen Cuban military entities or intelligence services, or controlled by them, to the list of entities with which financial transactions are prohibited for people in the United States.

"10 defeats in one"

From Russia, where he is on tour, Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel celebrated the victory. "The US suffers 10 losses in one. The peoples of the world voted for Cuba because they know that our cause is truly just. Cuba is respected. For Fidel and Raúl for the Revolution and for the Cuban people # NoMásBloqueo, "he tweeted.

Haley said that the annual vote to condemn the blockade against Cuba "is a waste of time" because "in the 27 years that we have had this debate, nothing has changed in Cuba."

Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro also celebrated "the tastiest victory" Cuba has won against the embargo.

"Trump should open his eyes (…) the road is respect, dialogue (…) is not the path of threat, of blackmail, of illegal sanctions," said the Venezuelan, whose country also received new US sanctions on Thursday. .

In 2016, for the first and only time, the United States abstained from voting against the resolution on the blockade in a context of bilateral approach of the government of Barack Obama to the island after more than half a century of enmity between Washington and Havana, which included the reopening of embassies in both capitals in 2015.

But since Trump's arrival in the White House in 2017, relations between both countries are tense and the respective embassies are operating at a minimum.

The UN was thus again the scene of growing tensions between Cuba and the United States.

Two weeks ago, with screams and hitting desks with punches and thick books, about fifteen Cuban diplomats boycotted a session convened by the United States to expose the situation of about 130 political prisoners on the island.